In the past year, my focus has been on the creation of diminutive paintings of the small spaces in which I both live and work. Small paintings contain their own admissions about the enormity of painting. They invite intimate viewing in a way that larger pieces do not. A viewer can observe one section of a large painting from a close distance, but is able to see the entirety of a small painting from an equal distance. In that sense, a small painting is quite vulnerable. Some of these paintings have taken me months to complete. They have been re-drawn, re-organized, and seen numerous changes in color and light. I labor over such decisions with the ultimate goal of conveying aspects of the space that are not contained by the purely visual. What does it sound and smell like? What is the temperature in the room? I want to discover in painting, a character beyond the visual. The larger paintings in a way are studies for the small paintings. They’re records for me to see how changing the size of the container forces change in the paintings. Part of the goal in making these paintings is for me to eventually be able to paint my way out of the space and its constraints. I want to incorporate invented aspects, but have to spend a lot of time really investigating and understanding the space first.